Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Controversy is an art which can be planned and done with
eyes wide open. It is concurrently one
of the most effective and underused strategies.

Strategy used
frequently by some now ultra-popular bloggers and web personalities in their
early days seems to have fallen by the wayside:
causing controversy.

Your brand, company, or even you could use controversy to
catapult your digital presence ahead of competitors and to top of mind in your
niche.

Spread the recognition of your name/brand far and wide you
are temporarily put in the spotlight and become the hot topic of your niche in
the social web, bringing you large scale awareness.

Controversy can short-circuit your road to popularity if you
are able to properly orchestrate it. It
is better to be known for something, anything – even if it is slightly
controversial – than to be anonymous. In
a world of long tail media, you will be perpetually lost if you don’t create
ideas that spread, and controversy is a devastatingly effective approach.

But what about your digital reputation?

While reputation is integral, you are in a greater position
of power to create a positive one if first you are known. Turning around a less than perfect reputation
is a far easier task than being unknown and trying to have your ideas
heard. People are exceedingly forgiving,
it is part of human nature.

I could go into this further but I want to leave the
creative elements of this to you. The
social web makes it easy to spread controversy – so be sure you have a larger
plan in mind.

its an approach this potent can quickly get out of control
if you haven’t prepared for all contingencies.

An Indian Fable provides a metaphor for the efficacy of this
strategy:

A wasp named Pin Tail was long in quest of some deed that
would make him forever famous. So one
day he entered the king’s palace and stung the little prince, who was in
bed. The prince awoke with loud cries. The king and his courtiers rushed in to see
what had happened.

The prince was yelling as the wasp stung him again and
again. The courtiers tried to catch the
wasp, and each in turn was stung. The
whole royal household rushed in, the news soon spread, and people flocked to
the palace. The city was in an uproar,
all business suspended.

Said the wasp to itself, before it expired from it’s
efforts, “A name without flame is like fire without flame. There is nothing like attracting notice at
any cost.”